December 11, 2009 “Suet 9” porn a00} Tones © per(en) Yo ase Jan Kennelly, Principal To Whom It May Concem: am pleased to give my highest recommendation for Sara Hoover, Sara completed her special education student teaching in my classroom for students with cognitive impairments during the fall of 2009, The classroom contains 13 students with a wide range of impairments and academic abilities. Sara did a phenomenal job working with this highly challenging group of students and because of this; I believe that she will make an outstanding and highly effective special edueator. During the 16 weeks in my classroom, Sara worked hard to not only provide student with appropriate lessons; but also continually increased her expectations for their learning, She ‘was very creative and aware of students learning abilities. She worked hard to meet their needs on a consistent basis while continually changing her teaching modalities. She showed a large amount of professional growth and gained more confidence in her teaching skills. With each passing day, she became more confident in her role as a special educator. She became stronger in her behavior management skills and as a result easily managed the behaviors of multiple students at any given time in the classroom. While her role as a teacher was at the forefront of her experiences in my classroom, Sara also worked to increase her awareness of special education laws, rules and procedures, She was a part of our building Positive Behavior Support leadership team and took an active role in implementing the system school wide. Sara was able to increase her interactions with parents and other educators in the building as she worked hard to meet the needs of students in both the special and general education classroom. She supervised 4" grade students on a three day field trip where she was able to modify and adapt lessons to meet my student’s needs while they were participating in the general education environment. Along with the above noted items, Sara also worked as part of many education planning teams, managed instructional assistants and assisted with the peer ‘mentor program in the school. Sara Hoover is not only an exceptional person; she has the qualities and drive to become an excellent special education teacher. It is clear how much she truly cares about her students and views their disabilities as simply unique abilities on their road to becoming. successful learners. I highly recommend Sara for any teaching position. She will be an asset to your school district, Please feel free to contact me to discuss Sara further, Sincerely, Ecc Senkeusee Erin Senkowski, MA CI Special Education Teacher Sherwood Elementary School eesenkow@st (989) 799-2382